I haven’t been able to find a thread on my exact situation so I thought I’d make my own but my tegu (male) is about seven months old, we got him a little over a month ago from one of my local reptile stores- from my understanding they did not handle him at all and when they sold him to us they called him a “psycho” . He is actaully not too bad in my opinion and me and my boyfriend have been working with him extensively. He never seems to bite out of aggression but he does come up and nudge you sometimes and sniffs you and inevitably bites. I don’t want to pull away as I don’t want him to understand that this behaviour can make us stop touching him or leave him alone but he is about 2 1/2 feet long so his bites although not aggressive can still be very hard and he typically does it a few times before walking away. He also has lunged a few times at me for example we are trying ti harness train him so I left the harness in his cage and as I was removing my hand he lunged all the way into my lap huffing and puffing before crawling back into his cage. I’m not sure if this is aggression or not. Sorry for the loads of information but I wanna make sure your as well informed as possible.
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Tegu taming
- Thread starter arden_c
- Start date
Oh and he also does allow petting he’ll let you pick him up etc. he’s not extremely skittish but is still a little cautious of us. I’d like to know a good way to tame him down well before he is big so he doesn’t seriously hurt anyone. He got my toe before pretty bad tho and wouldn’t let go was shaking and kept biting harder- I think he bit it because I moved it back as he was crawling out from under the table -He gets out of his cage at least once a day for a hour usually but most days he comes out two-four times.
- Messages
- 14
- Location
- Mountain View CA
8 yr Female B&W. Blizzard has the run of our back yard with a 2' x 4' temperature controlled house she is free to enter or leave. We have had her since 2015 when she was about 24" long. Before that we had a Beardie for 9 years. I'm a 67 yr old guy living with my wife and 2 autistic adult sons. Several years ago, when she was fully grown, she went through a biting phase. We have had little trouble since then except a bite when she targeted the hand holding a tongs rather than the thawed rat in the tongs. 2 weeks ago she gave me the worse bite yet. I had opened to house (the roof is hinged.) and was patting her head. I do this all the time, picking her up, looking face to face and putting her against me over my shoulder and making cute noises. After this I walk around near my house and may put her down, let her sniff around a little and pick her back up. This time, she grabbed my hand and would not let go. She reset her bite and moved around to deepen the cuts. It hurt like Hell. I couldn't get her to let go, My wife heard my yelling and came to my aid. She stuck her thumb nail downward into Blizzard's lower jaw and she let go. Most of the damage was on my baby finger, which was bleeding from from a few punctures, one of which was maybe 6mm long. I went to Urgent Care, no broken bones, I didn't need stitches, (the doc's like to leave animal bites open to avoid infection. ) Antibiotics for a week. I made myself get back to handing here again, but I have leather gloves on, and I have a hoodie. The other day, when I out it the back yard, Blizzard, gaped at me once and a yelled and her at slapped to top of her head (not very hard). Then I picked her up. I thought about getting rid of her, It really made my very sad. She's usually completely non-aggressive. Once, when one of my sons had kidney surgery, she let him put her in bed with him and just slept. She has been nice to our 2 cats. A few weeks ago, she tried to bite one of our cats, but only scratched him and got a mouth full of fur. Anyway, I'd like your comments.
Msib
New Member
- Messages
- 2
- Location
- West Los Angeles
Hey Detroit
My Benji lunges but doesn’t really bite. He’s a year old and just feeling his beans. Do you think discipline will work. I’m thinking about investing in gloves myself
My Benji lunges but doesn’t really bite. He’s a year old and just feeling his beans. Do you think discipline will work. I’m thinking about investing in gloves myself
- Messages
- 14
- Location
- Mountain View CA
I would be guessing. I'm not sure how much Blizzard's problems have been from not identifying me or bad moods. Discipline requires Mr. Lizard understands what he did to get in trouble, that's hard to know. If he is having trouble ID- ing you, it definitely won't help. And then it still may not help, because he may not reason from cause to effect.
I've been trying to pick her up every day since a few days after the bite. My gloves are just ordinary leather, designed to protect from abrasion, not so much for punctures. If she clamps down on me again, I'm pretty sure her pointy teeth will get through, but hopefully, the damage will be reduced. So they're partly just to give me confidence so I can keep handling her with PBST.
I've been trying to pick her up every day since a few days after the bite. My gloves are just ordinary leather, designed to protect from abrasion, not so much for punctures. If she clamps down on me again, I'm pretty sure her pointy teeth will get through, but hopefully, the damage will be reduced. So they're partly just to give me confidence so I can keep handling her with PBST.
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